Smelly smells in Rotorua

Only a week left in New Zealand. Are you kidding me????? Where did the time go? I feel like that was the quickest 3 1/2 months of my life. I've been having such a blast here :)

Over the weekend we were able to go through Hamilton to do baptisms in the temple, and then we drove a little farther to spend 5 days in Rotorua. Since James has connections with people pretty much ALL over New Zealand, we were able to stay with a friend of his who lives in Rotorua. I couldn't believe that the family housed 25 of us for 5 days and 4 nights. I kept thinking....I wonder how mom would handle having all these people in her house? haha. But I guess the Brons's host people all the time so they are used to having big groups crash at their place. 

For our little weekend get away we first went to the Hamilton New Zealand temple. Phil told us to stop at Momma's Donuts right next to the temple, before we went in, and boy were we glad that we listened to him. Those were some of the best doughnuts I have ever had. They were like a bigger version of crispy creams. Yummmmm! They were delicious! Or "de-LIC-ious" as Phil would say. 

The temple was so beautiful and so peaceful. It was really neat to be able to all go in together as a big group and do baptisms. We were able to sing hymns and be filled with peace, as we felt the spirit in and out of the baptismal font. It was a small temple and I loved being able to visit it. It actually doesn't have an angel Moroni on top, but we heard that they may be putting one on eventually. . .? Anyways, it was beautiful and such a wonderful experience. 

After the temple we headed to the Brons's house in Rotorua to squish into one room full of mattresses for the week. Rotorua has a lot of natural hot springs all over the place and so it smells like ROTTEN EGGS--hence the title of my post. Staying at the Brons's was like a BIG sleepover with 20 girls. haha. We definitely got to snuggle a lot and stayed warm even though it was cold at night. LOL. It really was funny just seeing a big room full of mattresses and 20 girls squished together. The kitchen area was also full of like 6 couches so we were all able to have somewhere to sit outside of our bedroom as well. 

It was quite the house!

But I must say, the craziest part of this whole little trip was the dinner and show that we went to on Friday night (our first night in Rotorua). I honestly don't even know what words could describe that show. The food was really yummy and it was nice to go out and have enough room for all of us to eat. But that show....it was just so WEIRD!!!!!! There were SEVERAL inappropriate jokes, actions, dances, words, songs......and the actors and actresses were just....I don't know. 

It was interesting. 

Everyone was SO confused what the show was even about, like literally I did not follow the script at all. I had no idea what was going on, like what they were talking or singing about the WHOLE time. At one point the only guy in the show (since the cast was made up of 3 women and 1 man), came out in pretty much nothing and started dancing so WEIRDLY to the song "splish splash I was taking a bath". All 25 of us didn't know what to do or where to look, and we were all so confused about why in the world he was out dancing in those clothes to that song. I'm telling you....it was just all WEIRD. 

The best part about it though, was at the end they randomly told us all to hide under our tables. So Brooke and I got on the floor, looked at each other, and started BUSTING OUT LAUGHING. We had NO idea what we were doing on the floor, no idea what was going on in the show, and we were still a little in shock from the last "splish splash" dance that we just lost it. It was the funniest thing ever. We laughed and laughed and were pretty much terrified for what was going on in the show. Luckily Brooke took her camera out and got a candid picture of us in that moment. That is something I don't think Brooke and I will ever forget. We are pretty much scarred for life. WHAT A WEIRD SHOW!

(show songs: um pa-pa, um pa-pa; splish splash; America's National Anthem; Bugle Boy.)

(cast: woman that we are pretty sure was a man; the only guy in the show who was a little off; oh and the grandma who was VERY dirty and inappropriate)

What a way to end our night after a spiritual day at the temple. Gotta love Rotorua. They actually call Rotorua, Rotovegas because it has a strip that is like Vegas I guess. 

yummmyyyyy!

I love that right next to the temple is a big field of cows. So NZ!

Beautiful

It looks fake huh?

NZ temple and flag!

I loved doing baptisms.

Weirdest show of our lives.

Brooke and I had our own little table at first. . .

...then Margo didn't want to be on the front table because she didn't
want to get called to do stuff during the show, so she joined
our table. It didn't make much of a difference though because Margo ended
up leaving half way through the show, she couldn't handle it. We all
were pretty weird-ed out!

"um pa-pa, um pa-pa"....oh boy! I can't even explain it!

20 girls smashed together in 1 room for 4 nights. Partttyyy!

I love Kirsten and Brooke. We had so much fun snuggling together. haha!
Oh man! Good times!

This was the best though. I loved being able to fall asleep to movies...
Falling asleep to Tangled was the best sleep I've had in a long time!

25 people's shoes at the front door.

Natural hot springs in Rotorua

And that's where the smell comes from!


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One picture I'm SO glad we got. We were not even posing...those were
our ACTUAL faces. We were so LOST, so CONFUSED, so in SHOCK,
and so WEIRD-ED OUT at this point in the show. Oh man
good good memories!!!